Andrei Kartapolov

Russian Deputy Defense Minister

"On the Internet, projects of the American special services, such as … Metal Gear and RuNet Echo, are being implemented, aimed at direct manipulation of public consciousness and especially young people.”

The Metal Gear series was created by video game designer Hideo Kojima in Japan in 1987. It is published by the Japanese company Konami. The games’ themes are often critical of various governments, including that of the U.S.

Vladimir Putin

Russian President

“Russia never ducks its responsibilities, when it shoulders the responsibility. But what we have seen, what has been presented as evidence, we find absolutely unacceptable. We believe, there is absolutely no proof. What was presented doesn’t prove anything. Where is the absolute evidence that it was the rebels who fired (the missile) or somebody else? There are many questions, but they don’t answer them. They have already made up their mind who is guilty, once and for all. We cannot accept such an approach to an investigation. ”

After his annual call-in show on June 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists there was no proof Russia is to blame for the 2014 downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine. However, the evidence presented by investigators showing the Kremlin's culpability in the tragedy is undeniable.

Dmitry Kiselyov

CEO, Rossiya Segodnya

“We live in a different world; the range of freedom of speech actually practiced in Russia is greater than anywhere else on the planet. That is because the fear is long gone, you can write and even sculpt anything.”

After the detention of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, Russian state TV host Dmitry Kiselyov attacked those expressing censorship fears, claiming Russia has freer speech than anywhere else. But from the persecution of journalists to a crackdown of free expression online, this claim is false.

Oleg Zhivotov

Ukrainian Lawyer

“The experts found that, according to Article 17 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot be involved in any conflict within the country. They are intended only to repel external aggression.”

Russian media has seized on comments made by the lawyer for the former chief of the Ukrainian armed forces’ General Staff, who repeated an expert commission claim that constitutionally, the Ukrainian military can only be deployed at home to repel external aggression. That claim, however, is false.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Russian opposition figure

“Worse of all, the idea of organizing racial rallies to cause the U.S.A. to collapse is not an isolated case of an acute psychotic break-down of some mentally ill staffer. In the same letter, Prigozhin’s staffers are bragging about their participation in the wars in eastern Ukraine, in Syria. They are also building plans to ‘assist in training national security forces’ in such countries as Qatar, Sudan, CAR, Chad, Madagascar, as well as ‘implementation of joint projects with Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia.’ And that, as we know, are not just plans but reality.”

The U.S. Justice Department indictment and the data on Russian advertisements on Facebook released to the U.S. Congress allege that Yevgeny Prigozhin and companies controlled by him have been conspiring to defraud the U.S., including by aggravating social divisions.

Sergey Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

“As for the question that you asked US Secretary of State on the allegations regarding Russia meddling in the US election, I would like to say that today I transmitted to Mike Pompeo a copy of an article published in the United States in 1987 claiming that the Soviet Union would try to meddle in the 1988 US presidential election.”

The article is from a fringe publication and states that the Soviets were very interested in the 1988 U.S. presidential election. That's not comparable to the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and it doesn't support Moscow’s denials.

A Ukrainian website recently posted a story claiming that outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was willing to risk civil war by engineering a questionable legal pretext for a third round of voting. The only problem – the inauguration date has already been set.

Ivan Danilov

RIA Novosti columnist

“Despite Aslund's (and many of his colleagues') rock-solid belief that there must be the mythical ‘Putin’s billions’ in the West, American (and not only American) intelligence agencies, which have full access to all financial transactions in the U.S., UK, the European Union and offshore jurisdictions in the Western world, could not find anything."

A Russian state media columnist attacked efforts to determine President Vladimir Putin’s “mythical” wealth, claiming that Western intelligence agencies have been unable to dig up the dirt despite their access to offshore flows. We find an abundance of evidence that is already available publicly.

Nikolai Petrov

TV Zvezda Host

“Here, by the way, is the perfect, freshest example of such fanning of a hybrid war. It is a recent report by the RAND Corporation -- financed, by the way, by the U.S. Defense [Department] – regarding so-called hybrid Russian aggression in the Baltic states. The report is, in essence, war propaganda and frightening the population about the inevitability of Russian intervention in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.”

Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

"I understand that some countries would like to forget as soon as possible about the role that they played in the years of prior to World War II. However, I deem those attempts to accuse us of militarizing public opinion as offensive."

Many countries distort or omit inconvenient facts from their pre-World War II history, but Russia has all but eliminated the most difficult discussions from its state education system. One man was even fined for posting factual information.

The photograph on Simonyan's Telegram channel, which she called a “green boulevard” was an image from Paris. Reuters fed to its affiliates hours of live coverage of French street protests, which turned violent.

After a Lithuanian court sentenced 67 former Soviet military officers for crimes against humanity in a failed January 1991 crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy drive, Russia has lashed out at the “illegal act,” although the claim fails under international law and historical circumstances.